Visually, Spirited Away is extraordinary. I love the strong, intense colours and sharp shadows of Miyazaki's films, as well as the weird yet super-realistic character design (whether based on real-life animals like Haku's wolfish features, or make-believe like the impossibly cute soot balls or the haunting masked No-Face). And the Pixar-like attention to detail in the animation was absolutely amazing, such as Chihiro tapping the front of her shoe on the ground after she put it on. I love well-executed animation, and Spirited Away is most definitely well-executed.
But I really didn't find the story to be as cohesive as any of the other Studio Ghibli films I've seen. Characters' motivations were sometimes not really made completely clear, and I especially had a problem with Chihiro's parents at the beginning. "Yes, my only daughter, you stay in the car in this strange, dark wooded area with creepy statues while your father and I wander off into this scary abandoned theme park. We'll be back soon!" I mean, what the fuck?
But even leaving that aside, it felt like a series of events pasted together to get to the end rather than an organically developed narrative. There's a scene early on where Chihiro is told to eat a berry because she is turning see-through, but no explanation is given as to why that is happening, or how the berry is supposed to help. She's also told to hold her breath when crossing a bridge, but it's never explained why the spirits will notice her when she breathes. These arbitrary plot devices were all over the place, and stuck out like sore thumbs.
It was enjoyable if you completely suspend your disbelief, but I found it more unbelievable than Howl's Moving Castle, in which a wizard hoons around in a giant moving castle powered by a fire demon.
(I'm still waiting on my next few DVDs to arrive, so I skipped ahead to Spirited Away as Carmen said she wanted to watch it with me. The next few will be completely out of order.)
